Gabon - The Lions on the Road: Cycling London to Cape Town - page 179

Chapter 15: Gabon
After mass, I cycled until 1:30 p.m. finally arriving at the Kom River which borders
Cameroon and Gabon. Since there wasn't a bridge, I needed to wait for the barge to return
from across the river. I had an hour and a half of waiting so I sat at a nearby eatery and
bought my lunch. The barge finally arrived for the 3:00 p.m. crossing and once I bordered,
we left almost immediately. It took less than two minutes to cross and once I disembarked, I
cycled up to the douane (customs). The officer processed my passport within 5 minutes and
said au revoir.
For the most part, the road was flat and had a great gravel surface with only a few
rippled sections. With very few vehicles on the road, I cycled closer to the centre and was
abletomaintainaquickpace.WhenIwas18kilometresfromBitam,avehicledrovetoward
me and slowed down to a stop. The driver introduced himself as Jacques from Toronto who
wasworkingforaMontrealengineeringfirmcalledTECSULT,andweexchangedpleasant-
ries. He wanted to give me a ride to the town on his return trip. I thanked him all the same
but maintained that I wanted to keep cycling. He sped off and I continued onward to Bitam.
When I neared the 10 kilometre-to-go mark, Jacques pulled up behind me and insisted that I
placemybikeinthebackofhistruck.Iwasabouttosaynowhenheexplainedthatitwould
give me enough time to wash and join him and his colleagues for dinner. My eyes lit up.
“Dinner, did you say?” Food took priority over this easy road and so I hopped into the back
of his pick-up and within minutes we arrived at his home.
After I washed up and “dressed” for dinner, I was told that we were heading to the
CatholicMissiontoeatwiththeCanadiansisters.Ilookedatmyshirtandfeltitwasn'tclean
enough to wear at their dinner table. If I was only going to dine with the guys, I wouldn't
have changed, but I wanted to look presentable at the sisters' place. Daniel, one of Jacques'
colleagues from Québec, lent me a dress shirt and off we went. Our destination was only a
couple of kilometres out of Bitam and when we arrived, we were warmly welcomed by our
fellow Canadians. Dinner was excellent as was the conversation.
Jacques explained to me that the team was designing and constructing a bridge in
northern Gabon. The team consisted of engineers and specialists from Canada and were
thereoncontract.IfounditinterestinghowtheytouchedbasewiththeirheadofficeinMon-
tréal. Jacques explained that after they first collected data, such as analyses of soil samples,
then they prepared a weekly report and sent it to Libreville by plane which was then sent to
Montréal by satellite. Every Tuesday evening, the team would go to a local bar which had
a reliable telephone line to receive a phone call from Montréal to be told if they needed to
make any changes on the master plans.
Today was Tuesday and they were anxious to get going to receive the call. I guess
this was why Jacques was so persistent when we met and insisted that I be driven back for